The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a final appraisal document recommending a new first-line treatment for use in the NHS to treat unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma in adults.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma progresses quickly, has a poor prognosis, and there is currently an unmet need for new treatment options. The current line of treatment for pleural mesothelioma is chemotherapy, which is associated with side effects such as nausea, vomiting and alopecia.
The new immunotherapy treatment of ipilimumab and nivolumab works by blocking proteins that stop the immune system from working properly. They help to make the immune system find and kill cancer cells. NICE has found that nivolumab plus ipilimumab was associated with longer overall survival than chemotherapy at both the 2-year and 3-year follow up.